There Are Now Only Two Living Members of the Shaker Faith

Until recently, there were only three known members of the Shaker faith living in the United States—and now, the Associated Press reports, the number is down to two.

According to one of her peers, Brother Arnold Hadd, Sister Frances Carr, 89, died on Monday after battling cancer. Hadd, 60, and a woman named Sister June Carpenter, 78, are now the only Shakers left in their tiny religious community—a village in New Gloucester, Maine, called Sabbathday Lake.

The Shakers are a Christian denomination whose basic tenets include gender equality, pacifism, communal property ownership, and celibacy. They formed in England during the 1700s, from a group that had left the Quakers. The physical act of shaking and ecstatic movement during worship led to the group's unofficial moniker: “Shaking Quakers.” (The group’s formal name is the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing.)

To escape persecution, the Shakers left England in 1774, and settled in the American colonies to freely practice their beliefs and attempt to form a utopian community. They became renowned for their furniture craftsmanship, and for inventions like the flat broom and the spring clothespin.

The Shakers were never a large religious community, but over the decades, their numbers dwindled. Prior to the Civil War, nearly 6000 Shakers lived in the U.S.—and at one point, Sabbathday Lake, which was settled in 1783, had nearly 200 members. The group’s decline is largely due to their celibate lifestyle, and also due to the fact that they no longer take in orphans and raise them in the Shaker faith. (The Shakers adopted Carr.)

Today, Sabbathday is home to the only active Shaker Community in the world, according to the community’s website. But despite the odds, its surviving members remain hopeful that the Shaker way of life will persevere. “As long as we do God’s work I believe in the essence of my soul that there will always be vocations sent to this way of life,” Hadd told PBS in 2010.

Nyepi, a Hindu holiday that celebrates the Saka new year, is a sacred tradition on the Indonesian island of Bali. It's a time for silence and mindful meditation, practices that might pose a challenge to a plugged-in generation of smartphone users. To ensure the day passes with as few distractions as possible, religious and civilian leaders in Bali have asked telecommunications companies to shut off their data for 24 hours, AP reports.

From 6 a.m. on Saturday, March 17 until 6 a.m. on Sunday, March 18, Bali residents will be unable to access online news, social media, or any other form of web content on their phones. “Let’s rest a day, free from the internet to feel the calm of the mind,” Gusti Ngurah Sudiana, head of the Indonesian Hinduism Society, said according to AP.

Shutting off mobile data for a full day may sound extreme, but it's just one way the island will respectfully observe the holiday. Throughout Nyepi, Balinese shops and the island's sole airport are closed, and television programs and radio broadcasts are paused. Officials first asked cell phone companies to suspend their data last year, but this is the first year they agreed to comply with the request. An exception will be made for hotels, hospitals, banks, and other vital public services.

Nyepi is followed by Ngembak Geni, a day that also encourages self-introspection. But unlike Nyepi, Ngembak Geni is a day when people are allowed to socialize, even if it is online.

The Vatican is a place steeped in tradition, but that doesn't mean it can't foster technological innovation as well. This March, the city-state is hosting its first-ever hackathon, WIRED reports.

Hackathons are opportunities for coders to gather in one place to achieve a common goal with just their computers and a little programming know-how. The coding often takes place in the span of a few days, so participants are required to work marathon-style to build new software. While the events are nothing new—they've become popular around the world as a way to come up with creative new tech ideas, fast—this is the first time one has infiltrated the holy headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church.

For the 36-hour event, called VHacks, 120 college students of different faiths from around the world were chosen to code software tools that can promote social inclusion, interfaith dialogue, and assistance for migrants and refugees—three global issues the church is committed to tackling.

A modern hackathon may seem like an odd choice for an organization that's the same in many ways today as when it formed nearly 2000 years ago, but it's part of a broader push from the Catholic Church toward embracing new technology.

In 2017, Pope Francis made a surprise appearance at the annual TED conference in Vancouver, Canada. "How wonderful would it be if the growth of scientific and technological innovation would come along with more equality and social inclusion," he said during his speech. VHacks was designed with this idea in mind, asking young people to tackle serious social issues through programming.

The pope has been outspoken about bringing the church into the 21st century since he took the papal throne in 2013. While he has warned of the perils of using technology frivolously, Pope Francis is also a big proponent of using it for good. He is active on social media and once referred to the web as "a gift from God."

VHacks kicked off at the Vatican on March 8 and will conclude on Sunday, March 11. At the end of the event, a panel of judges from the Vatican and from various tech companies will judge the teams on their creativity, innovation, and the potential impact and feasibility of their projects.